Sayonara, 1957, as Major Lloyd Gruver
Cast: Miiko Taka, Red Buttons, Miyoshi Umeki, Patricia Owens, James Garner
Director: Joshua Logan
Rating
Factoid
– Based on James Misheners‘ popular novel, Sayonara tells of the American Armed Forces’ bigoted (and official) stand on interracial marriages between enlisted men stationed in Japan and local women during the final days of the Korean War – and how two couples are affected by this attitude.
– Today Red Buttons (Brando’s costar) remembers his experience on this film his first – with warmth and admiring words for his costar: “Marlon loved to clown. I used to love to make him laugh and see him smile; he has a wonderful smile. We got along great, just great.”
– Sayonara was nominated for 10 Academy awards including Best Picture. Red Buttons and Miyoshi Umeki won “Best Supporting Actor” and “Best Supporting Actress” Oscars for their work in the film.
– Brando was nominated for “Best Actor” Oscar but he lost the Oscar to Alec Guinness; Brando won “Best Actor” New-York Film Critics Circle Award .
– “I’ve always said this,” recalls Buttons, “and I’ll say it again. I think Brando’s performance handed me my Oscar on a platter. When he walked in and saw both of us dead, that heart-wrenching scene that he did…just with saying ‘Oh my God,’ those three little words, he put an Oscar in my hands and in Miyoshi’s hands too.”
– Audiences loved Brando in the Sayonara and they made the film one of the year’s top moneymakers. The film would stand, in fact, as Brando’s most successful until the release of The Godfather fifteen years later.
Quotes from the movie
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